Town Hall meeting of Grade-4

A meeting of the parents of Grade IV - RCIS was held on 17th Feb 2011 at 9.a.m. The meeting was Chaired by Mr. Hanif Kanjer, Director. In attendance were Mrs. Tanya Valecha - Principal and Mrs. Nabila Khatri - Supervisor of the Primary Section. 18 parents attended the meeting.

The meeting commenced with a suggestion to increase the school timings or to change the school timings to the morning shift. Hanif Kanjer suggested that increasing school timings would not be a suitable option as it would be too late for the child to reach home and that quality-wise there would not be any improvement in the academic results since only half an hour or 45 minutes were being increased.

One parent suggested that her child lagged behind in Creative Writing skills and that his Grammar was bad. Hanif sir explained that for the first five years he had focused on Maths and Science and on going forward he would now be focusing on English. He encouraged the parents to make their children read on their own and to inculcate the reading habit of reading at least 4 non text books each year.Tanya M'am also suggested that the child join the school tutorials once or twice a week.

A parent suggested that Treasure Island had a few objectionable words and that this book should not be recommended to the students. She suggested introducing a few books by Indian writers.

Another parent was not satisfied in the way French was shaping up. Hanif Sir counseled the parents saying that they were only introducing French to the students as a Fun Language and not introducing it with a view to take up a career in.

A few parents also felt that Hindi was a problem since students could not read the newspapers and that guided reading was not being done in class. Hanif sir assured the parents that they would be raising the level of Hindi in the next academic year.

Teachers changing was another area of concern, since the English teacher had left mid way during the term and the students found it difficult to adjust with the new teacher . Tanya Ma'am said that she tried her best to avoid this problem by making adjustments within the staff.

A parent wanted to know what was the training provided to teachers at RCIS. Tanya Ma'am said that each teacher compulsorily underwent the CIDTT course for a period of one year.This course was teacher/ student oriented programme and was very practical - not just theoretical or classroom oriented.

One parent wanted to know why it was necessary to have theoretical questions asked in the Computer exams, since computers was a practical operation. Tanya Ma'am suggested that this requirement was set by the Cambridge Board and that there were two kinds of exams - Practical and theoretical; The practical exam carried 200 marks and the Theoretical exam carried 150 marks.

One parent wanted to know the difference between IGCSE and SSC. Hanif Sir explained that the examination procedure was very different. The IGCSE board never repeated a single question in the past 20 years, but the SSC syllabus had questions at the back of the chapter which were repeated at the Board exams, thus making it a predictable exam. The questions at the IGCSE were application based.

A parent suggested to introduce more grammar activities. Hanif Sir suggested that he would be reducing the Prose lectures and increasing the Grammar lectures. Tanya Ma'am suggested that she would focus more on skill building and not learning by rote.

A parent wanted to know if there was a School Counselor available, to which Tanya Ma'am suggested that there was one, but the teachers determined if the child needed counseling services or no.

Sports - A lot of parents felt that sports needed a lot more emphasis than what is currently being offered. Some parents complained that the Sports Training was of a poor quality and that the sports coaches communicated very harshly to the students. Hanif Sir apologized for this and promised to make the necessary amendments. Hanif Sir urged the parents to encourage their child to take up any one sport and to develop any one talent like singing, playing a musical instrument, dance etc.

A parent commented on the school website was not functioning. Hanif Sir apologized and stated that now all the websites were operational and all the relevant news was available. He also informed the parents that we were now also available on Facebook.

One parent wanted the Town Hall meetings to be held on Saturdays or Sundays. Hanif Sir explained to the parent that this would involve calling all the staff on that particular day, but he assured the parent that this would be kept in mind for future meetings.

The meeting ended with a Vote of Thanks to all present.